Aquaponics can help in improving Food stability in India

India is set to become the most populous country by the year 2025 according to projections and we are already unable to feed all the mouths in India. Helping India achieve Food stability is a must if we want our country to grow,thrive, sustain the huge population and use it to advantage.

Research in the field of agriculture, nutrition has many solutions to produce more using less but clearly the solution that has the potential to solve the food crisis is Aquaponics.

Aquaponics is already helping farmers reap huge profits in a lot of countries. It is the simplest, effective and reliable way to grow organic fruit and vegetables in bulk without needing acres of farm land.

We need something that produces healthier natural food at a faster rate and Aquaponics is the perfect solution.

An Aquaponic system consists of fish that are kept in tanks. Fish naturally produce the nutrients that plant need to thrive so their waste is collected at the bottom and pumped through a filter as readymade food for plants. The plants are set up in Nets, open bottom pots or grow beds on top of the tanks which allow the roots of the plants to immerse in water. The roots absorb the nutrient from the fish waste, while the leaves trap the sunlight. The system needs a regular oxygen, ammonia and PH level checks and basic maintenance.

Benefits of Aquaponics:

·         More produce as the plant is getting the best nourishment from the fish wastes from the roots and Sunlight from the top.

·         No need of land, soil or watering the plants and involves much less space than normal farming.

·         The produce (fruit and vegetables) are completely organic in Nature as no fertilizers or pesticides are used.

·         Multiple avenues of profit from fruits, vegetables as well as fishes.

·         One the setup is properly done, not much hard work is required as the fish does it for you, you just need to supervise the water quality at times.

·         You can grow foods that are not native to your region and you can grow these all year by controlling the environment of the Aquaponics setup.

·         You can do it in the city, so no transportation costs to sell it.

If more people engage in Aquaponics from India we can move towards a better future in terms of Food stability.

Importance of Water Quality in Aquaculture

Fish performs all their activities in water. Because fish are totally dependent upon water to breathe, feed and grow, reproduce, excrete wastes and maintain salt balance understanding the physical and chemical qualities of water is critical to successful aquaculture. To a great extent water determines the success or failure of an aquaculture operation.

Water sources for aquaculture may sometimes be of low quality or polluted by human activity. But the primary reason for bad water quality is the due to the activity in the culture.

Manures, antibiotics, feeds etc are applied to ponds to increase production, but this is only partially converted to animal biomass the rest is adding up to the culture if not degraded properly. During high production levels, the input of feeds and nutrients may exceed the capacity that the aquaculture environment can sustain and affects the water quality in a negative way.

Poor water quality will lead to stress, poor growth, low immunity to diseases, low survival rate adding up to low production.

Constant check of water quality and application of right probiotics, herbal extracts and enzymes in a controlled manner is a natural solution to check and maintain good water quality in Aquaculture along with promoting fish growth and survival rate thus helping the farmer make profit with sustainability.

Aquaculture issues: Fluctuations in DO concentration

Dissolved oxygen is one of the factors of prime importance in Aquaculture. Dissolved oxygen concentrations fluctuate constantly if proper methods are not used to control it. Within a matter of hours, or sometimes even minutes, dissolved oxygen levels can change drastically from optimum to lethal. This dynamic nature of dissolved oxygen concentration results from following factors:

- Water has a limited capacity to hold dissolved oxygen as oxygen is not very soluble in water.
- The rate of oxygen intake by fishes and the aquatic flora and fauna can become very high,
- Water absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere very slowly

          In the day time oxygen concentration varies because of the amount of algae in the water, sunshine, and pressure. On hot days, there is large amount of algae presence. The algae are making photosynthesis and dissolved oxygen concentration becomes very high. This is not optimal for fishes.

 At night, algae consume the oxygen to breathe so there can be deficiency in DO concentrations. Even in winter when nights are longer and the days are cloudy the amount of oxygen is poor.
Also, high concentration of CO2 inhibits the ability of fishes to breathe oxygen from the water, which can also lead to death.

          Generally farmers believe that when there is less oxygen the fishes come up to the surface gasping for air. However, this is the last stage of Oxygen deficiency. Farmers need to check dissolved oxygen problems in the water and increase the aeration process when the fishes become unusually lethargic and stop feeding.

Feed Conversion Ratio – How Probiotics can help?

Feed Conversion Ratio is a basic and most important measure of productivity in aquaculture business. FCR is a measure of an animal's efficiency in converting feed mass into body mass output. In a nutshell it is increase of body mass in kg per kg feed intake.

When farmers are stocking the ponds with the fish fingerlings or samplings, the weight of the samplings or small fishes are checked(A). From then on farmer needs to calculate the amount of feed put in the aquaculture (B). When the season ends the farmer needs to calculate the weight of his output (fish/shrimp) (C). Using the following formula the FCR can be calculated.

FCR = B/C-A

What we need to understand is that digestion capability and survival rate of the fishes/shrimps are extremely beneficial to achieve low FCR i.e more weight gain with less feed.

If a farmer starts with 1000 fingerlngs and feeds them well 1000 kgs of feed and each fish weighs 1 kg after harvest, is the FCR a perfect 1? 

Well we need to consider the fact of survival, say if due to some poisoning or diseases 200 fishes die before maturity that will hamper the FCR as the weight of output is reduced. 

Similarly if the aquaculture/pond environment does not have enough dissolved oxygen or the pH level is not suitable fishes do not eat or even if they eat they are unable to digest it. Once the harvest is done these fishes are small as they could not digest or feed sufficiently due to improper environment, so the FCR takes a hit again.

Probiotics is the best and a natural solution to decrease FCR and increase production with lower cost of feed. Probiotics when applied on aquaculture improves the fish digestive system, improve plankton quality in water, controls ammonia in water hence reducing pH, inhibits disease creating pathogens and proves beneficial in many ways for the ecology of the pond and to the consumer who is eating the fish.

India is the second most populated country after China and we need food stability. Aquaculture has immense opportunity as more production will help in feeding a good protein diet to the huge population. FCR is one of the major measurements of productivity but we need to ensure that we are not sacrificing our environment by using unethical means of aquaculture for personal benefits.

Importance of Probiotics in Aquaculture- 1

The need for sustainable aquaculture has promoted research into the use of probiotics on aquatic organisms. The initial interest was focused on their use as growth promoters and to improve the health of animals; however, new areas have been found, such as their effect on reproduction or stress tolerance.

Probiotics can help aquaculture in the following ways:

Promotes Growth: Probiotics have been used in aquaculture to increase the growth of cultivated species, it increases the appetite as well as digestion hence the fish/shrimps can grow more with application of suitable probiotics.

Inhibits Pathogens: Probiotic microorganisms release chemical substances with bactericidal or bacteriostatic effect on pathogenic bacteria that are present in the intestine of the fish/shrimp, creating a barrier against the proliferation of pathogens. The antibacterial effect is due to alteration of the intestinal pH due to the generation of organic acids and the production of the following:

antibiotics 

bacteriocins 

siderophores 

enzymes (lysozymes, proteases) and/or hydrogen peroxide

Aquaculture Probiotics: Pseudomonas stutzeri

P. stutzeri is capable of degrading organic pollutants like naphthalene, chloronaphthalene, methylnaphthalene, chloro-salicylate, and methyl salicylate. P. stutzeri can also convert hexavalent chromium, precipitated mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic and other elements causing pollution in the aquaculture.

Additionally, P. stutzeri is capable of nitrogen fixation which as discussed in an earlier blog is key to breaking up ammonia from fresh excreta and decaying matter at the pond bottom. P. stutzeri is an essential natural probiotic used in environmental remediation and recovery.

P. stutzeri can perform denitrification in high oxygen levels and can carry out nitrification and denitrification simultaneously.

Probiotics: Shirmp friendly Bacillus pumilus

A strain of Bacillus pumilus isolated from black tiger shrimp had high salt tolerance and capabilities to inhibit the growth of marine pathogens, including Vibrio alginolyticus, when cultured together.

Black tiger shrimp, can host Bacillus pumilus in the gut, where it inhibits infections by Vibrio harveyi, V. alginolyticus, and V. parahaemolyticus, all of which are known to be harmful bacterial pathogens of shrimp.

How Probiotics can reduce pollution - Aquaculture

A fish pond is a simple ecosystem and within the ponds there are billions of microorganisms which play an important part in maintaining the ecological balance, however when the pollution exceeds its capacity for self-purification, ammonium, nitrite and other pollutants accumulate in the pond, damaging the health of fish and shrimps.

High concentrations of ammonium can damage the gill epithelial cells and weaken the immune systems of fish resulting is disease and lesser survival rate.
High concentrations of nitrite can be poisonous because it increases the level of methemoglobin in the blood, resulting in tissue hypoxia, nervous palsy and death. Changing water, dredging, addition of lime and algaecides are common techniques to remove nitrogen compounds and other pollutants. However, these techniques are expensive to implement and may cause secondary pollution, adding to the disadvantages.

The addition of microorganisms to aquaculture systems like ponds has recently become a successful practice for reducing nitrogen pollution and improving water quality. Nitrogen cycling in aquaculture systems is mainly accomplished by ammonifying bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, and denitrifying bacteria. Many microorganisms, including photosynthetic bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, denitrifying bacteria, and some species of Bacillus are being used for commercial Aquaculture.

Aquaculture Probiotics: Bacillus subtilis

In aquaculture, feed is the most expensive production cost. The quality and quantity of diets are primary factors influencing shrimp/fish growth, shrimp/fish health, disease prevention, contamination and expenses. Utilization of probiotic bacteria has emerged as the best solution with innumerable applications in the aquaculture feed industry. Bacillus species ,Bacillus subtilis are one of the most researched bacteria for fish/shrimp probiotic development due to:

·         Versatile utilization of Growth Nutrients

·         High Enzyme production

·         Antimicrobial secretion

·         Produces spores

·         Develops in  both aerobic and anaerobic conditions

Bacillus subtilis is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Alternative nutrition, vegetable proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and Bacillus subtilis probiotic strains, must be considered in shrimp/fish aquaculture production systems; as an option to eliminate animal feed ingredients, improves digestion-assimilation, reduce water pollution and diseases, increasing yields and profits.

NatureNerve

We at NatureNerve strive to bring a smile to the farmer's face by respecting what the land can provide. From delivering sustainability to providing consultancy, what ever the need we make sure that the customer always comes first. Its not only a product that we market to our client, its a complete service. Our clients can always reach us and take advice from our on call experts. We strive to understand the need of our clients and bring to them custom made products and services, since at NatureNerve we understand that every patch of green is unique.

Our dedicated team works round the clock to ensure complete satisfaction and peace of mind. Selling our range of sustainable aquaculture supplements or agriculture fertilizers is simply the tip of the ice-berg. We go the extra mile to assist them to get the best quality of seeds, and if they ask we can also arrange for their harvests to get picked up, and for no extra cost.

The products and services are a result of long ongoing years of dedication and research in the coastal regions of the Sundarbans and the green agricultural belts of the Punjab. With community development and establishment through our services we connect with the heart of sustainability.  We constantly strive to provide economic protection to the coastal population of India. Such coastal communities are at the fringes of society and hence intimately associated with native ecological services. Nearly 3/4th of the population of the Indian Sundarbans is dependent on fish farming, so with proper management we continue to provide a sustainable support system.

Continuous and exhaustive field trials guarantee our client base the satisfaction of meeting their targets. We feel the pulsating nerve of Mother Nature herself! At NatureNerve, we dance to the rhythm of the earth. From the laboratory and the fields we bring to you agricultural technology that is easy to grasp and a flair to flourish in.